TEOS: сommunication theory

For our research, we chose the brand «Savushkin Product». It is one of the largest and most well‑known dairy producers i n the Republic of Belarus.

This brand is a leader in its local market. It is also actively expanding to other countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and others. The brand’s product range is very wide: milk, kefir, sour cream, cottage cheese, cheeses, yogurts and desserts.

The main positioning of Savushkin is built around the values of naturalness, health, care and quality. The brand shares its mission «to be a source of a healthy life». This mission is supported by international certificates (FSSC 22000) and awards, including the prestigious Superior Taste Award.

The company offers a wide range of products and several sub-brands, each designed for different groups of consumers.

One of these sub-brands is TEOS — a line of high-protein yogurts and dairy products. It is positioned as a product for people who live an active and healthy lifestyle.

Unlike the main Savushkin brand, which people traditionally associate with naturalness, family values and quality dairy products, TEOS is aimed at a modern audience. This audience is interested in sports, healthy eating and taking care of their health.

TEOS’s communication strategy is built around the ideas of an active lifestyle, physical activity and balanced nutrition. To promote the brand, TEOS actively uses social media, collaborations with sports influencers, the creation of useful content, the organisation of sports events, and the building of a community of people who share the values of a healthy lifestyle.

We decided to focus on the sub-brand TEOS for several reasons.

First, TEOS works with a specific target audience. These people are focused on a healthy lifestyle and make conscious choices about their diet.

Second, the brand actively uses digital tools such as social media, its website, and chatbots.

Third, choosing a sub-brand allows us to conduct a deeper and more focused analysis.

Our research is relevant because of a global sociocultural trend. More and more people are making healthy lifestyle practices part of their daily lives. Sports and physical activity have become integrated into the everyday life of city residents. As a result, taking care of one’s health and controlling macronutrients is no longer just for athletes.

In the context of communication theory, this creates a unique challenge for traditional producers. A brand must appeal to a mass audience while at the same time encoding deeper meanings of «functional nutrition». Studying the sub-brand TEOS is valuable because it has successfully occupied this niche.

The goal of this work is to critically analyse the communication strategy of TEOS. To do this, we will study the brand’s communication channels, its external communications and its positioning. We will also apply analytical models — we will base our analysis on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), and the semiotic tradition of Craig.

In modern communication theory, persuasion is defined as a goal-oriented process. It aims to change another person’s thoughts, values or behaviour, while respecting the receiver’s free will.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo, explains that a person can receive and process information in two fundamentally different ways: through the central route (by deeply analysing facts) and through the peripheral route (through quick emotional associations and mental shortcuts).

The central route is a way of processing information that requires high involvement from the consumer, personal interest, and significant intellectual effort. Unlike in ancient times, in today’s world facts and evidence have become the main tools of persuasion. When a person has personal motivation and time, they activate objective thinking — objective elaboration (bottom-up thinking). They set aside their biases and search for the truth by carefully studying the arguments.

For the TEOS brand, we use this lens to analyse the rational elements aimed at athletes and people who control their diet. According to the ELM model, two factors are needed to activate the central route: motivation to process and ability to process.

We can see this in the packaging of the Active and Pro lines. On the front of TEOS yogurt, the brand places verifiable facts — a large label showing the protein content. By putting these numbers on the front, and on the packaging of the main line they write «pure ingredients, less sugar», this packaging design allows consumers to quickly process the information and understand whether the product is useful for them.

The brand consciously avoids biased persuasion. It does not push abstract slogans like «tasty and healthy». Instead, it allows the audience to draw their own conclusions based on facts. The packaging is quite simple: apart from the flavour, the product line and the protein content, often nothing else is shown on the packaging. For a motivated health-conscious consumer, this data serves as strong elaborated arguments that produce a positive response. The person analyses the ingredients, understands the product’s value as «functional fuel» for the body, and develops a stable, trusting attitude towards the brand.

The peripheral route is persuasion through mental shortcuts and visual rhetoric. In fact, it is a process of activating quick cognitive connections — mental shortcuts. In this case, a person accepts or rejects a message not based on logical analysis, but under the influence of external triggers that are not directly related to the objective characteristics of the product itself.

This route is activated when there is a lack of time, when the person is tired, or when they do not have a strong motivation for a healthy lifestyle. Instead of a detailed analysis of the ingredients, the consumer’s brain uses ready-made psychological triggers — peripheral cues.

The TEOS brand systematically uses key peripheral triggers in its social media and visual content to engage the mass consumer.

First: On the TEOS Instagram account, this trigger is implemented through digital and visual rhetoric tools, specifically through the use of photography. The brand uses light, uncluttered visual compositions and photographs. As a result, the packaging of the deep blue yogurt stands out well against the background, becoming the central element that directs the viewer’s attention.

*Instagram is owned by Meta, which has been recognized as an extremist organization on the territory of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, the brand publishes Reels with influencers — young sportswomen and nutritionists — who show how easy it is to include the yogurt in a daily diet. The images of attractive or authoritative people trigger a transfer mechanism: consumers automatically project the positive characteristics of people and the things around them onto the product itself. By choosing micro-influencers, the brand accumulates two peripheral cues at the same time: Liking (aesthetics, sympathy, and the trend of a healthy lifestyle) and Authority (expert knowledge about health). This creates a high level of trust in the audience. These decisions do not communicate dry facts about calories and nutrients, but they create an immediate positive affect. The consumer makes a purchase, subconsciously wanting to associate their own life with the easy, beautiful and correct way of being that is being shown.

Another trigger is Social Proof. This trigger relies on social norms and the consumer’s subconscious belief that «everyone is doing it». TEOS actively integrates into the urban environment by sponsoring mass sports events, such as the #RunningForTEOS marathon and the Moscow League competitions. By showing many active, running city residents supported by TEOS, the media sends a non-verbal peripheral signal. The product is understood as a necessary marker of a healthy and modern city dweller. This encourages the consumer to buy the product in order to feel part of an approved social trend.

Another trigger is Reciprocation. The rule of reciprocity is based on a deep social principle: «If someone does something for you, you feel a little obliged to do something in return.»

The brand successfully uses this mechanism in the digital space through its interactive Telegram chatbot #TEOSofia. The chatbot gives the user useful value for free: personal training plans and trackers for healthy habits. After receiving real, free, daily help from the brand, the consumer unconsciously prefers TEOS yogurt on the supermarket shelf. It is as if they want to repay the care they received. We can assume that this mechanism helped the project reach a large audience of 14.5 million users without using aggressive direct advertising.

A critical unifying element of this communication system is Walter Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm. According to this theory, humans are storytelling animals. They perceive reality through a series of connected plots.

Even though we separate the central and peripheral routes of persuasion, in the consumer’s mind the different tactical steps of TEOS — from the dry facts about protein on the packaging to the aesthetic posts of influencers and the interactive workouts in the chatbot — are seamlessly stitched together into one global metanarrative: «You are a conscious, active person who knows the value of health, and TEOS is a natural and reliable helper for your daily right choice.»

This story has narrative rationality because it fully satisfies the criteria of coherence and fidelity.

Narrative Coherence — all the elements and ambassadors of the brand communicate logically consistent behaviour.

Narrative Fidelity — the brand’s values resonate perfectly with the personal experience and internal beliefs of the audience.

As a result, the communication aims to maintain long-term relationships. This allows the brand to remove cognitive barriers and establish itself in a hybrid niche between everyday FMCG products and specialised functional nutrition.

The Theory of Planned Behavior, developed by Icek Ajzen, explains how communication can encourage a person to perform a specific physical action, such as buying a product. The key predictor of any action is the person’s intention to perform it — Behavioral Intention. This intention is formed under the influence of three independent factors:

Attitude toward the behavior: The person’s own evaluation of whether the action is useful, good or pleasant.

Subjective Norm: The perceived social pressure and how the person thinks their environment and important people evaluate this action.

Perceived Behavioral Control: The person’s assessment of how easy or difficult it will be for them to perform this action, and whether the barriers depend on them personally.

If we look at TEOS’s communication through this theory, we see that the brand systematically and simultaneously influences all three components of the TPB model, reshaping the consumer’s daily habits. TEOS builds a strong positive attitude in the consumer through two channels at once. Through a rational argument — showing the amount of protein (central route of ELM) the brand proves the cognitive health benefit of the product. At the same time, through visual rhetoric on Instagram, it creates an emotional association with sports, lightness and visual aesthetics. As a result, in the consumer’s mind, buying TEOS is evaluated as an exclusively «correct, useful and pleasant action» — this is the manifestation of Attitude toward the behavior.

To ensure that a healthy lifestyle is seen not only as correct but also as fashionable — something people want to follow — TEOS creates a strong sense of social presence and community. By organising mass marathons (#RunningForTEOS) and partnering with the Moscow League, the brand clearly shows the consumer a social norm: «All the active, successful and healthy people around you are making this choice.» Media activity with young sportswomen and nutritionists in Reels reinforces this signal.

As a result, an ordinary person develops a Subjective Norm: buying TEOS is a marker of belonging to a socially approved, progressive group of «active city residents».

The Perceived Behavioral Control component works as follows. The main barrier for a person who wants to start a healthy lifestyle is cognitive complexity («Healthy lifestyle is expensive, difficult, you need to count grams and cook for a long time»). TEOS lowers this barrier by transforming the consumer’s control beliefs through providing the necessary knowledge.

First, this is achieved through a step‑by‑step brand architecture: there is the basic drinkable TEOS (minimum entry level), and there are the Active and Pro lines for advanced users. Second, the interactive Telegram chatbot and the brand’s website help to overcome the barriers. The sections about the importance of protein and the simple recipes on the website clearly show how easy it is to include the yogurt in one’s diet and make it more varied. The consumer’s perceived control is maximised: the action seems simple, clear and completely manageable.

Thus, TEOS’s communication system works as a single mechanism where the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior reinforce each other. The central route of ELM builds a rational attitude. The peripheral triggers construct the subjective norm. And the digital tools (website and chatbot) maximise behavioral control, turning the consumer’s mental intention into a real action at the supermarket checkout.

The analysis shows that the TEOS brand has built a highly effective and consistent communication strategy. This strategy successfully keeps the brand in a hybrid niche — a healthy everyday product — without moving it into the narrow category of specialised sports nutrition.

The simple packaging design on the shelf instantly communicates dry, rational benefits (the amount of protein). At the same time, social media creates an inspiring and aesthetic brand image. Organising sports events and marathons serves as a key link. These events simultaneously verify the brand’s healthy lifestyle positioning, strengthen the social norms of the community, and give the audience a practical opportunity to be active. This proves the excellent accuracy and integrity of the chosen communication strategy.

The analysis shows that TEOS has a strong communication strategy. However, we can offer some recommendations for further improvement.

First: Develop separate social media channels for TEOS

Currently, TEOS shares the same social media accounts as the main Savushkin brand. We recommend creating separate channels for TEOS. From the perspective of communication theory, this will prevent context collapse. The healthy lifestyle audience of TEOS has different values and expectations. Content about sports and recipes should be separated from mass publications about sweet cheese products.

Second: Expand collaborations with larger influencers and major sports events

TEOS should work with bigger influencers and integrate into larger sports events that are respected by the target audience. According to the ELM model, this will strengthen the peripheral cue of social proof. When people see respected athletes or well‑known personalities using TEOS, they will feel even more that this is the right choice.

Third: Promote Greek yogurt as a healthy replacement for less healthy products

TEOS can show consumers how to use Greek yogurt as a healthy substitute for mayonnaise, salad dressings and sauces for evening meals. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, this will expand the consumer’s perceived behavioral control. It will break the barrier that the product is only a breakfast food. New usage scenarios will give the audience the knowledge that the product is functional at any time of day. This will maximise their behavioral control and encourage repeat purchases.